Happy New Year!! As hoped, my first blog of 2014 brings better news, and a better frame of mind. After running zero miles while resting my calf during Christmas week, I have managed 11 miles of run-walk-running this week. Fundraising has had a little boost, as well, as several people used my birthday as an excuse to make a donation to my marathon fund - Thank you! The total now stands at £1,313 - over half way to my target.
Now, let me update you with what I have learned about calf strains over the past couple of weeks. A calf strain, like a pulled muscle anywhere in the body, is actually a tear in some of the fibres of the muscle. The severity depends on the number of fibres torn, ranging from a mild grade 1, when only a few fibres are torn, to a grade 3, which is a complete rupture of the muscle, requiring surgery to fix it.
The good news is that my strain was very much at the lower end of grade 1. After a few days' rest, I was comfortable enough to join in a 3 mile walk on Christmas Day, and to do 4 miles on Boxing Day. After a week, I was ready cautiously to try a little bit of jogging, first on the treadmill in the gym, then out of doors, interspersed with walking. That all went well, and so I planned a more extensive walk/run for New Year's Day. More about walk/running in a moment, but first....
The bad news about the calf is that this type of injury usually happens when the muscle is overextended. In runners, that's usually because you have been running extra hard, have not warmed up properly, or both. But neither of those were the case two weeks ago... I was running very gently, and it was well on in the run when the pain appeared, so I was fully warmed up. The other way that calf muscles get strained is when the muscle is fatigued late on in a long run (not the case), or, when the overall training load has simply been too much. I suppose we can't be absolutely sure, but that does look like the most likely candidate in my case.
I had a little rant and a moan on a runners' discussion forum, complaining that I couldn't understand why I was injured, because I hadn't DONE anything. Someone pointed out to me that I HAD done something - I had doubled my average mileage in about 3 months. And maybe the body is complaining about that. I could try ignoring the warning, and go back to my original training schedule, hoping that I was just unlucky..... but that presents the risk, if I'm wrong, of a more serious strain, and a longer enforced rest.
So that leaves me with a dilemma - because 14 weeks tomorrow, I have a marathon to run, and a lot of generous people supporting and encouraging me. So, I need to do enough training to get me to the finish line, while staying well enough to get to the start line. The answer, I think, lies in run-walk-run.
Mixing running with walking is hardly a revolutionary concept. It's what virtually every novice runner does - certainly those who start in mature years, anyway. It's what ultra-distance runners - those hardy souls who tackle challenges longer than the marathon - do as a matter of course. It's what I did on most of my runs for the first six weeks, and it's what I was still doing on my long runs. But most novice runners - me included - aspire to run continuously. The first time I got round parkrun without stopping to walk was a great occasion. I have done runs of up to 9 miles without stopping to walk, except to cross the road without getting run over or hop over the odd stile.
However, there is a school of thought that most runners would benefit from walking much sooner, and more frequently. It reduces fatigue, makes it possible to cover longer distances, and - importantly for me - greatly decreases the risk of injury. According to one if its main supporters, a former Olympic athlete called Jeff Galloway, it enables even sub-3-hour marathon runners to record a faster time than with continuous running.
He recommends different ratios of running to walking depending on your overall pace. The fastest runners would walk for only 30 seconds of each mile, the slowest ones will alternate 30 seconds of running with 30 seconds of walking. What he insists on, though, is that you take the walk breaks right from the very start, and keep on taking them until at least 2/3 of the distance you intend to run. On shorter runs - such as my parkruns, or midweek 5-6 milers, once my calf is back to full strength - the walk breaks are optional. But he recommends I use them for all my long runs, and on marathon day itself.
At the moment, there is no question - I need to use walk breaks to avoid setting back the recovery of my calf. I got no pain from it during an hour of run-walk-run on Wednesday, or 45 minutes this morning, when I increased the run segments from 1 minute to 2 and then 3, later in the run. But I was aware of some mild stiffness later on, which was not matched on the other side.
I learned a couple of things this week. I had resigned myself to not running at all for 2 weeks - my first attempt would have been this coming Monday. When it looked as though it was reasonable to try it sooner (as long as I did plenty of walking), I was crazily, exuberantly, childishly happy. Several people have asked me if I will carry on running after the marathon - and the answer is Yes!! It makes me happy. I probably won't put in as much mileage as I need to do for the next 14 weeks (14 weeks !!!), but I will run.
So, I'm looking forward to getting out on the lanes and trails on Monday.... I'll try 2 hours, and if that goes well, I'll try 3 hours the following Monday. Then I'll be back to where I was before the calf injury, and ready to build again. My overall pace has had to slow down - but that's OK. It's what I need to do to keep running - and a slow run is better than no run at all.
So - thank you for all your support and encouragement. You are an extra reason why failure is not an option - by hook or by crook, I am getting round that marathon, under my own steam.
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